Metabolomics, the study of metabolites, the chemical substances produced as a result of metabolism, which encompasses all the chemical reactions that take place within cells to provide energy for vital processes.

In anabolic reactions, a cell uses energy to combine small molecules into larger molecules. In …

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The orderly transformation of small molecules, resulting in the production of metabolites, is essential for an organism’s health. Changes in levels of key metabolites over short periods of time, such as the response of a person’s blood sugar (glucose) to a meal, can profoundly affect health in ways that may not be apparent by studying DNA or proteins alone. Metabolomics is therefore a tool for defining observable molecular characteristics (or molecular phenotypes) that are associated with metabolism. It is especially powerful when coupled with other comprehensive molecular analysis technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics (respectively, the study of an organism’s entire set of genes, RNA molecules [or transcripts], and proteins). Applications of metabolomics focus on medical research, but researchers in other areas, including microbial fermentation, agriculture, and environmental monitoring, are also exploring the field.

Metabolomic methods

Two complementary methods dominate metabolomics: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). NMR is a rapid and reproducible technique that preserves the integrity of metabolites and specimens, allowing them to be investigated subsequently by other means. However, although NMR can yield valuable information on molecular structure, it has limited sensitivity. In addition, NMR produces information on only a relatively small number of metabolites in most biological samples.

Several MS technologies have been deployed for metabolomics and have provided impressive sensitivity and specificity of analyses. MS-based study of lipids (lipidomics) has been an especially fruitful area of medical research. Some MS techniques, however, require extensive sample preparation, and interactions of biologic samples with the working surfaces of the instrument can cause performance to vary from sample to sample if not monitored carefully.

Metabolomics via MS is further complicated by the need to extract metabolites for analysis. Chemical diversity of the metabolome is much greater than that of the genome, the transcriptome, or the proteome, and a protocol that efficiently extracts very hydrophilic substances, such as lactic acid, might poorly recover oily molecules, such as squalene (a cholesterol precursor).

For these reasons, unlike genomics, where standards of practice have been widely accepted and off-the-shelf technologies for DNA sequencing have come into wide use, metabolomics remains the realm of experts who devise their own assays and require expensive instrumentation. In the first decades of the 21st century, worldwide demand for metabolomics analysis far outstripped the capacity of existing laboratories.

Metabolomic data

Across the “-omics” sciences, analysis and interpretation of data endures as the biggest challenge of all. This is reflected particularly in metabolomics, in which two overarching approaches, targeted and nontargeted, produce different kinds of data.

Targeted and nontargeted approaches

Targeted metabolomics are focused, such that the analyst queries defined panels of similar biochemicals. Targeted assays can be highly sensitive and specific and reproducibly quantitative, especially when heavy isotopes are used to label substances and instrumental methods are narrowly focused.

Nontargeted approaches, on the other hand, are intended to provide a broad portrait of metabolism. The methods of the nontargeted approach tend to be less rigorously quantitative. This approach is therefore most effectively used for discovery applications, in which one discrete condition is compared against another to identify metabolites that change. One example is the comparison of metabolites in drug-treated cells versus control, or untreated, cells.

Nontargeted metabolomics of human urine can generate massive data sets that include not only classic mammalian metabolites from known biochemical pathways but also food additives, drugs and their metabolites, botanical compounds from the diet, products of fermentation by gut microbes, and substances with unknown identities. Thus, large numbers of molecular variables (p) can be measured in a small number of samples (n), presenting what is known as the high-dimension, low-sample-size dilemma (p>>n), which is common in -omics sciences. Overcoming this problem requires great care in statistical treatment in order to minimize the risk of false discovery. The development of methods for the integration of metabolomic data with data from other -omics platforms has been a goal of some researchers in the field of systems biology.

Mapping results onto known biochemical pathways informs interpretation but can also give a humbling picture of the complexity of real-life metabolic networks. Indeed, many of the metabolites that are measured by metabolomics platforms are influenced by dietary composition, gut microbes, and metabolic pathways that are intrinsic to the organism being studied, creating challenges in understanding underlying mechanisms when those metabolites change in their concentration.

Hippuric acid, an abundant urinary organic acid of humans, illustrates the complexity and challenge of interpreting metabolic data. Microbes resident in the large intestine of the human body help to break down complex aromatic compounds in dietary plant matter, freeing up benzoic acid, which enters the bloodstream. The liver can add the amino acid glycine to benzoic acid to form n-benzoyl glycine, or hippuric acid, which reenters the blood and is absorbed by the kidneys. As a result, the kidneys excrete hundreds of milligrams of hippuric acid into the urine every day.

Metabolomics in agriculture and environmental monitoring

The metabolomes of plants differ fundamentally from those of animals. As illustrated with hippuric acid, the human metabolome is a mixture of enzyme products, plant matter, and microorganisms. Autotrophic plants, in contrast, make all of their own metabolites, and while much of their primary metabolism, such as their catabolism (breakdown) of glucose to carbon dioxide and water, resembles that of animals, they also synthesize specialized secondary compounds (secondary metabolites), such as caffeine and various chemicals that give flowers their fragrance. To identify these metabolites, botanists need spectral libraries specialized for the taxonomic group under study. (A spectral library is a database of compounds classified according to the wavelength of the light they emit or absorb.) For example, in white wines analyzed by both NMR and MS, scientists have associated wine metabolites with “body” and other subjective attributes perceived by tasters. Such a collection of information can be a valuable reference for researchers who are working to cultivate grape varieties tailored for the production of specific attributes. Botanists also use metabolomics to evaluate plant growth and development and to monitor changes in the nutritional value and aesthetics of foods during transport.

Environmental scientists have also been developing practical applications for metabolomics. For instance, studying the molecular physiology of small animals resident in natural communities provides functional information on the effects of stressors (e.g., pollutants) on ecosystem health. Sentinel species, which readily accumulate pollutants and therefore serve as indicators of ecosystem health, have been evaluated for different environments, including terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats. Examples of sentinel species in each of those environments include earthworms, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and water fleas, and mussels, respectively.

Metabolomics in medical research

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 raised the possibility that scientists would be able to use knowledge of a person’s complete genetic makeup to help personalize his or her medical care in ways that would improve health and prolong life. Personalized medicine benefits especially from in-depth molecular phenotyping methods, such as proteomics and metabolomics, which provide additional insight into gene function and may lead to the discovery of new opportunities in disease diagnosis and treatment. Metabolomics has particular promise in these areas, because it provides an integrated picture of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic variation.

Disease detection

Mass spectrometry (MS) of small metabolites has been in use for decades for the diagnosis and monitoring of so-called inborn errors of metabolism, which are rare genetic disorders. One such example is phenylketonuria (PKU), in which a metabolically inactive form of the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase prevents the usual conversion of the amino acid phenylalanine to tyrosine. In many countries, testing for PKU is carried out for every newborn infant, typically by blotting a droplet of blood from a heel stick onto an absorbent paper card. Metabolites extracted from the card are then screened by using MS, enabling the detection of PKU and other metabolic diseases arising from gene defects. Likewise, MS profiling of urinary catecholamines has long been helpful in evaluating patients with neuroendocrine tumours, such as pheochromocytoma and neuroblastoma.

Encouraged by these successes in niche applications, laboratories worldwide have initiated efforts to evaluate ways in which metabolomics might be developed as a means of low-cost screening of large populations. This approach to screening is based on the detection of biomarkers (physiological or molecular changes) that are characteristic of common infectious diseases, cancers, and other disorders. Noninvasive sampling, such as through urinalysis or analysis of exhaled breath, could lead to increased acceptance of screening programs.

Disease prevention and treatment

The growing prevalence of overnutrition and inactivity that has fueled obesityepidemics in developed and less-developed countries has formed the basis for a number of metabolomic studies, many of which have been aimed at the prevention and treatment of obesity and associated diseases, including diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease. Scientists have observed “signatures,” or distinct patterns, in the circulating metabolites of obese patients that correlate with increased risk of type II diabetes and death from cardiovascular disease. Abnormally high levels of aromatic amino acids and the three branched-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine), for example, have been associated with poor health outcomes for obese persons. The mechanisms underlying the elevation of these amino acids in disease-susceptible subjects may be linked to excess protein consumption, genetic variation in catabolic enzymes, and altered metabolism of gut microbes. Conversely, glycine is reduced in people with obesity and type II diabetes, which illustrates another challenge of interpreting metabolomic findings: unlike macromolecules, which often have just one or a few functions, a given small metabolite might participate in many diverse biochemical reactions. Reduced blood glycine in obesity and diabetes may be associated with the need to synthesize the tripeptide antioxidant glutathione in order to combat the oxidative stress (production of reactive substances) that comes with these conditions.

Role in understanding drug action and toxicity

Metabolomics has provided fresh understanding of drug action and has the potential to identify biochemical pathways toward which new drugs might be directed. In the past, investigators focused on expected pathways of drug action and toxicity. In the early 21st century, scientists increasingly focused on pharmacometabolomics, which enabled a broad look at metabolic responses to drugs and in turn stimulated new lines of investigation. For example, although the anti-inflammatory agent acetaminophen had been studied and used widely since the mid-20th century, in 2008–09 researchers at the U.S. National Cancer Institute used metabolomics to identify acetaminophen metabolites that were responsible for liver damage associated with acetaminophen overdose.

Role in understanding biochemical mechanisms of disease

By the early 2010s, while discoveries from small-molecule phenotyping via metabolomics had not yet translated into accepted diagnostic tests or treatments, the scientific value of metabolomics in mechanistic biochemistry was becoming clear. Metabolite profiles gave amplified readouts of subtle changes in complex cellular machinery, which was especially useful for cancer researchers, who knew that the fates of metabolic fuels could change as normal cells transformed into cancerous cells. For example, rather than extracting maximum energy from glucose by oxidizing it completely to water and carbon dioxide, a cancer cell might partially oxidize sugar to lactic acid (the so-called Warburg effect). Mutation of an enzyme in the tricarboxylic acid cycle known as isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1), which was known to cause certain human brain cancers, was found to convert a normal metabolite (alpha-ketoglutaric acid) into an unusual metabolite (R(-)-2-hydroxyglutaric acid, or 2HG). The unusual metabolite could serve as both a cancer biomarker and an endogenous carcinogen (a cancer-causing substance produced naturally by the body). The IDH1 story illustrates how metabolomics can help researchers understand the molecular characteristics of lesions that underlie human disease.

Metabolomics as functional genomics

American evolutionary biologist Paul R. Ehrlich noted that genes do not shout, but they whisper, a principle evident in the moment-to-moment biochemistry of metabolism, which ultimately is the product of flexible interactions between genes and environmental factors (e.g., diet). In the mid-20th century, after the intermediate pathways of metabolism were elucidated, research on metabolism fell into relative obscurity, because of largely the inability of detecting the subtlety of gene-environment interactions. However, with the later development of potent NMR and MS technologies, coupled with tools that enabled detailed investigation of genomic function, there came a renaissance in metabolism research, in the form of metabolomics.

In the early 21st century, metabolomics was closely aligned with functional genomics, owing to the former’s emphasis on the effects of metabolites on gene activity. In agriculture, environmental monitoring, and medical research, metabolomics scientists have in turn made contributions that have complemented other -omics sciences. Of special significance has been the development of numerical methods and intellectual constructs capable of distilling massive sets of data on genes, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites.